Eucharist and Evangelization both begin with "E"

Readings: Exodus 19:2-6a; Psalm 100:1-2.3.5; Romans 5:6-11; Matthew 9:36-10:8

Due to traveling, arriving home, and everything that goes along with that, I didn't really have time to compose a reflection on yesterday's readings. This is more of a sketch than a fully developed reflection. I think an interpretive key to the readings can be found at the end of our reading from Exodus: "You shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation" (Exodus 19:6). This resonates with these words, referring to the enthroned Lamb, found in Revelation: "You made them a kingdom and priests for our God" (Revelation 5:10).

Indeed, as Christians and by virtue of baptism, we all share in the common priesthood of Jesus Christ. As it is stated in 1 Peter, we are "a royal priesthood" (1 Peter 2:9). It's weird to me that after the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, which went to great lengths to reemphasize this reality, we seem bent on attenuating instead of amplifying it or even seeking to reverse it instead of moving it forward.

The highly revered Saint Oscar Romero, in one of his radio addresses, once insisted:

How beautiful will be the day when all the baptized understand that their work, their job, is a priestly work; that just as I celebrate Mass at this altar, so each carpenter celebrates Mass at his workbench, and each metalworker, each professional, each doctor with a scalpel, the market woman at her stand, is performing priestly office! How many cabdrivers, I know, listen to this message there in their cabs; you are a priest at the wheel, my friend, if you work with honesty, consecrating that taxi of yours to God, bearing a message of peace and love to the passengers who ride in your cab

This has bearing on the Gospel vis-à-vis our engagement with "the world." This also has to do with what it means to confess the Church as "apostolic." My guess is that when most Catholics are asked about what it means for the Church to be apostolic the answer would most likely have to do with Apostolic Succession. While this answer is accurate, at least to a certain degree, it is far from complete. An "apostle" is one who is sent. At the end of Mass we are sent, missa, meaning something like to be sent. We are sent on mission (i.e., missio). This is what the Church's apostolicity more than a historical claim.

Isn't this what Jesus, being moved with compassion, does in our Gospel for the Eleventh Sunday of Ordinary Time Year A of the Sunday Lectionary? He calls and sends apostles to proclaim the Gospel, the Good News, to proclaim Him in word and in deed. The mission in which we (i.e., all of us) are sent to engage at the end of Mass is to evangelize.

Addressing the bishops of the United States last week, Papal Nuncio Archbishop Christoph Pierre highlighted a dimension that often seems to be missing from our Eucharistic Revival, which seems in many ways in competition rather than in concert with the Synodal Path Pope Francis has asked the Church to walk. He spoke about the internal contradiction of Eucharist without a mission, the danger of Eucharist as a self-referential end in itself instead of empowerment for the mission of proclaiming the Gospel to the ends of the earth, of evangelizing.

Christian leadership is not about establishing and then exerting power. Merely telling someone that Jesus is the answer to their deepest questions and longings is pretty thin gruel. Besides, our reading from Romans shows that as Christ's priestly people, our power lies in weakness, not strength. Engagement, what Pope Francis calls a "culture of encounter," is the way of Jesus. So, like Jesus, we engage, we relate, we have compassion.

Archbishop Pierre opened his speech by talking about Synodality. He tells the bishops, "If we have followed the Pope’s lead, then after two years, we should already know some answers to the questions that you are accustomed to hearing from me: Where are we? and Where are we going?" Continuing, he said,

Have we discovered answers to those questions? Do we know what are the true needs of our people? Through our encounters with others, how have we been changed? What have we discerned? What old ways need to be abandoned, and what new ways must we adopt in going forward? Are we prepared to give our people the insights we have gained?" In short, are we moved with compassion by the plight of so many people?

I suppose I could develop this more, but I am going to leave it as is. Especially after my rather odd experience at an evening Mass last night, the Mass I could attend after traveling all day, I really felt the need to address what I think the takeaway from yesterday's readings is for us now. You can read Archbishop Christoph's entire address here.